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Amazon chooses Nashville as home for East Coast hub

Posted: 9:44 AM, Nov 13, 2018

Updated:2018-11-13 21:32:25Z

<p>After a 14-month search for a new headquarters location,&nbsp;<a href="https://qz.com/1461496/amazon-decides-hq2-will-be-in-new-york-city-and-crystal-city-va/" target="_blank">Amazon picked</a>&nbsp;Crystal City, Virginia, as one of its two new sites on Tuesday. The selection process may have seemed impartial, but some defense experts think it was largely predetermined to help Amazon secure a defense contract.</p><p>The DOD is currently shopping the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure contract, or JEDI, to major tech companies. The winner would build the Pentagon, which is located near Crystal City, a cloud system to house data that&#39;s currently scattered around 400 of its centers. The contract would be worth as much as $10 billion over a decade.</p><p><b>SEE MORE: <a href="https://www.newsy.com/stories/amazon-picks-new-york-northern-virginia-for-hq2/">It's Official: Amazon Picks New York And Northern Virginia For HQ2</a></b></p><p>It&#39;s possible Amazon picked Crystal City to position itself close to the Pentagon in case it does win the bid. And its chances are good, too. Insiders who&#39;ve seen the contract said &quot;everybody immediately knew that it was for Amazon,&quot; noting that it was one of the only companies that could meet the technical and financial specifications set by the DOD.</p><p>Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has also pledged allegiance to the Department of Defense while other tech giants like Google have begun to distance themselves from the agency entirely. In October, Bezos said at a conference, &quot;We are going to continue to support the DoD ... even when it&#39;s unpopular.&quot;&nbsp;</p><p>Additional reporting from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/" target="_blank">Newsy affiliate CNN</a>.&nbsp;</p><hr><b>Trending stories at <a href="http://www.newsy.com">Newsy.com</a></b><ul class="inline-related-links"><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/macron-introduces-global-cybersecurity-pledge/">Emmanuel Macron Introduces Global Cybersecurity Pledge</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/5-nations-ask-facebook-ceo-to-speak-before-committee/">5 Nations Request That Mark Zuckerberg Speak Before Committee</a></li><li><a href="http://www.newsy.com/stories/fcc-tells-phone-companies-to-stop-robocalls-by-next-year/">FCC Tells Phone Companies To Stop Robocalls By Next Year</a></li></ul>

Nashville will be home to Amazon’s new executive operations center -- bringing 5,000 jobs to the area and making it the largest jobs announcement in Tennessee's history.

Amazon made the announcement Tuesday morning, saying the location would be its new Operations Center of Excellence and be the company's headquarters for its logistics group.

Nashville will serve as the company’s Retail Operations division, which will be located in downtown just north of The Gulch in the Nashville Yards development -- a billion dollar project between Church Street and West End.

The one million square foot office space will house the tech and management functions of the Retail Operations division, including customer fulfillment, customer service, transportation, and supply chain, amongst others.

“Amazon has spent the past year searching the nation for the best possible locations to expand and it chose Tennessee because of our business-friendly policies, low taxes and skilled workforce," Governor Bill Haslam said in a statement.

The company is making an estimated $623 million capital investment over seven years and creating 5,000 net new full-time jobs with an average pay of $76.32 an hour, which is more than $150,000 a year.

Currently, Amazon employs approximately 2,500 people in the Nashville region across five fulfillment and sortation centers. This operations center is projected to create more than 13,000 jobs for Tennessee’s workforce.

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